It’s not unheard of, or even rare, nowadays in this world of clicks and impressions and maximizing the online ad revenue of every single pixel. But that doesn’t make it excusable.

Today in The Ottawa Citizen, smack dab in the middle of an open letter titled “Fear-mongering shows contempt for a politics of mutual respect”, was an ad by Christianity.com justifying the genocide and apartheid currently underway in Palestine. It is promoting the very “wedge politics” and “fear-mongering” that the letter is denouncing.

Mind you, it only showed up when I read the letter on my phone, but was not there when I checked it on my PC.

The letter is not about what is happening in Israel and Palestine, and it is safe assume that it hit upon some keywords that Christianity.com was hoping to attract: fear-mongering, Harper, barbaric practices, etc.

Still, that does not absolve the news outlet of responsibility. Unless it was intentional. Then that, of course, is a different matter altogether.

The federal Conservative Party of Canada has taken a commanding lead in a new poll conducted after the French language leaders debate yesterday.

Canadian Crime Minister Stephen Harper stood back and smiled as the other party leaders tore each other apart, assuring his party another five years of majority government.

With the assistance of Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe delivering ominous warnings of Quebec’s one hundred niqab-wearing women representing a greater threat than climate change, mass unemployment and unaffordable health care combined, Harper and his followers are set on cruise control to victory. They won’t even need a lot of their supporters to show up on Election Day.

So be thankful Conservative voters, you don’t really need to vote this year. Take the day off and relax. Fishing, hunting, church. Whatever! The day is yours.

Stephen Harper has finally attained the position he’s always dreamed of: The President of Canada. He must finally feel like he’s got a seat at the table with the big boys. His nation has been the victim of TWO “terrorist” attacks within a 3-day period. He must be loving the attention.

Don’t swallow what the media and the corporate-run government is feeding you. They are creating a narrative based on an agenda. Of course, some things happen within the framework of that narrative. There are terrorist attacks by Islamic extremists. Radical Islam does exist. Except for a few fringe conspiracy theorists, I don’t think anybody argues it doesn’t. However, there are many things outside the e framework that they bring into it.

What is a more likely scenario?

Scenario A
1. The deinstitutionalization throughout the 1950s-1970s turns out to be a massive failure and simply a cost-cutting measure, leaving people in need of mental health services with no support and simply putting them on the street.
2. 30% of homeless people and over 15% of inmates are determined to be seriously mentally ill
3. Big Pharma is pleased to report that 17 million children worldwide have been prescribed psychotropic medication
4. People with mental health issues turn to drug abuse, crime and homelessness
5. Media and governments pump out a 24/7 fear campaign about Radical Islam
6. Unstable, disenfranchised, or marginalized people consume this 24/7 fear campaign and identify with “the other”
7. Some (still very few) of these people take violent action as “The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend”
8. Corporate-controlled governments use these actions as a pretext to further their own political and financial agendas

Scenario B
1. Perfectly normal guy grows up in The West
2. Radical Islam takes root far away in the Middle East
3. Guy decides to broaden his spirituality and reads the Koran
4. Guy converts and becomes a Muslim
5. Guy attacks his home country because his new religion instructs him to
6. New Legislation is required to deal with this threat
7. It is vital to go to war overseas to fight this New War as a security measure